Telling the Story, Selling the Story

Last week, I received
an unexpected message. It was from a parent, asking me if I was offering
creative writing classes for a student doing the Leaving Cert (final secondary
school exam in Ireland). I hadn’t ever promoted myself as a resource for exam
students. I imagined they would be too busy ingesting vast tracts of
information for their exams to indulge in such fripperies as creative writing.

However, this parent
was willing to consider one on one classes, so I decided to follow up on the
query, in case I might be of use. I wanted to be sure the parent understood
that I was not a qualified English teacher, but I am a creative writing tutor,
so I could help them sharpen their creative writing skills and give them the
confidence to tackle the Leaving Cert English essay.

The parent felt that
this would be useful and I agreed to give the girl six one-hour sessions. And
the parent network being what it is, I soon got another booking to deliver the
same service to a boy. In each session, the students will learn a different
language or storytelling skill, and these will act as a toolkit that will help
them tackle the essay, which they won’t have seen prior to the exam.

The Elements of Story

My sessions will
focus on three core skills. I’ll work on language usage, to encourage them away
from clichés and to use either fewer or more words, depending on their writing
style. We’ll also work on different storytelling techniques, such as character
development, plotting, setting and viewpoint.

This will help them structure their ideas. Finally, I’ll help them generate ideas by showing them how to tap into their sentences. This will help them unlock memories that they can turn into stories. Having looked at the essay titles from the 2018 English exam, I’m confident that my approach will help them build up a bank of ideas that they can draw on when they’re in the exam hall. Rather than learn off an essay and hope it comes up, they’ll have the flexibility to adapt their ideas to the essay titles that come up.

Overall, I’ll show
them how to make the essay titles interesting and relevant for them, so that
even if English isn’t their passion, they’ll find a way to make the English
essay their own. At the very last, it’ll take the fear factor out of being
confronted with a series of essay titles and a blank page.

I also offer one to one consultancy for adults who have ideas for writing projects but are not quite sure how to move them forward. You’ll find out more about them here.

In a fit of organisational zeal last week, I organised a tonne of creative writing workshops that will see me through the summer. Good-quality, reasonably priced venues in my area are hard to come by, and I wanted to pounce on my favourite venue, the Coastguard Cultural Centre in Tramore, Co. Waterford, before the slots are all gone. So, I’ve set up three workshops for the coming months in the Coastguard.

Here’s what you can
expect from the WriteWords creative writing workshop stable in the coming
months.

Easter Children’s
Writing Camp

This camp will be happening over two afternoons in the second week of the Easter holidays, when parents are beginning to tear their hair out wondering what to do with their offspring. My camps are all for children aged 8-12, the perfect age to start writing, before inhibitions kick in. They’ll have great fun travelling to lands of their own making, creating characters with magical powers and making up stories that could go absolutely anywhere. It’s happening at the Coastguard Cultural Centre on Tuesday 23 and Wednesday 24 April, from 1-4pm. The price of the camp is €40.

Memoir Writing
Workshop for Adults

Following the success
of my last memoir writing workshop for adults in Tramore, I’m doing another one
on Sunday 12 May. Like the last workshop, it will be a chance for you to tell
the story of your life. A lot of people find that they’re drowning in material
from their lives and don’t know where to start. This workshop will give you a
structure that will help you shape your ideas. We’ll also take a journey
through the senses, to explore how the senses trigger memories and emotions. If
this sounds interesting to you, it’s happening on Sunday 12 May from 10.30am to
3.30pm in the Coastguard in Tramore. The cost is €50.

Summer Children’s
Writing Camp

In the long and
hopefully hot month of August, I will be giving a children’s summer writing
camp, and I’ll be going back to my usual format of a three-day camp. As well as
learning the techniques of story, they’ll come away with their own completed
story, which gives them a real feeling of accomplishment. The camp will happen
on three mornings, on August 6, 7 and 8, again in the Coastguard. What can I
say? It’s a venue that has everything. The cost of this camp will be €60, and
it will run from 9.30am to 1pm each day.

If you’re living in
the Waterford area and you’d like to book one of these workshops for yourself
or your children, you can email derbhile@writewordseditorial.ie or call 051 386 250. And if you’d like to find out more about the
workshops WriteWords offers, check out our Writing Workshops
page.
B��

As you know, I love to mix it up when it comes to writing and editing, meaning I love assignments that allow me to combine the two. For the past few months, I’ve been doing a somewhat unusual assignment which allows me to do just that. In the past, I have been asked to write newsletters and to edit newsletters. For this assignment, I write part of the newsletter and then edit the rest.

A Remote Working Assignment

The assignment is for
a start-up company that is developing event management software. They have a
remote working model, meaning they hire freelancers to supply services from
home, in a way that fits into the freelancer’s timetable. My role is to edit
the newsletter for events professionals, people who organise events, and to
write an intro that will engage readers and entice them to read further.

As it’s a remote-working model, all communication is done by virtual means. The newsletter is compiled by an in-house employee, who alerts me via the instant-messaging app Slack that the newsletter is ready for editing. I then access the newsletter through MailChimp, a software platform that allows people to design and distribute newsletters. I read through the newsletter first to familiarise myself with the content, edit it and then write the intro.

Approach to Editing

When I edit, I look for typos and for errors in sentence structure, which are actually more common. I change the sentences so that they read more coherently. I also edit for tone. The company is aiming for a chatty, informal tone, so I change any wording that I think is too stilted and informal. When I’m familiar enough with the content, I’m then able to write the intro, and I make sure to write it in a warm, friendly tone that invites people to read further.

Deadlines are often
tight, so I don’t always get a chance to go over the newsletter a second time.
But if time allows, I go over it one more time to check for stray typos. I
nearly always spot ways to make a sentence flow more smoothly, or a glaring
typo that escaped my eye the first time. Then I sign it off and the in-house
team sends it out to a growing list of subscribers.

It’s satisfying to
know that I’m playing a role in making the newsletter more readable for
subscribers, and that the polish I give the newsletter may be instrumental in
attracting new subscribers. Also, it’s a gift to have a regular assignment that
I can rely on every week, one that neatly fits into my schedule.

I do also write full length newsletters. If you’d like to find out more about my email marketing and other content creation services, have a browse through the content creation section of my website.

In case any of you were longing
for a blog entry from me last week, I was on holidays. On my return, I was
delighted to discover a lovely new project waiting for me in my inbox, in which
I get paid to read. It’s a reader’s report for an author who has finished a
memoir and wants to find out whether it is ready for publication.

A reader’s report is a curious
beast, as it crosses the line between writing and editing. It’s a comprehensive
critique of a novel, a memoir or a short story collection, with editorial
suggestions that authors can apply immediately, either to complete their
writing project or to polish it up for publication.

How The Report Is Compiled

I start by reading through the author’s
story almost as if I were a casual reader, letting the words sink in. But I
take notes along the way, making observations that I can later turn into
recommendations. After I’ve finished, it’s time to get down to brass tacks and
start giving my verdict on the story. I’ll always start with the strong points
in the story, to encourage authors and give them a feeling of confidence. Then
I compile a set of recommendations, which I divide into different sections.

The most important sections are
the ones that deal with the building blocks of story: character, setting and
plot. I help them to flesh out their characters and pay attention to how their
characters interact. I encourage them to draw on the senses to create a strong
sense of place for readers. Finally, I advise them on ways to pace their plot
and ensure the plot holds the reader’s interests.

Finer Details of Story

I then go into the finer details of story. The point of view a story is told from can shape how the story develops. I advise them on how to achieve a consistent point of view and how to make seamless changes in viewpoint. I’ll advise them on whether their dialogue reads the way people would speak and show them how to lay it out correctly. A reader’s report is more about giving broad editorial suggestions than editing an author’s language or tweaking the layout. However, if I notice recurring language or layout errors, I will flag these to the author.

Reader’s reports steer authors through the maze of their ideas.

These editorial suggestions
usually apply to both fiction and memoir, because authors are using many of the
same storytelling skills and are taking a creative approach to writing about
their lives. However, for memoir writers, libel can be an issue, so I give
general advice on material that could be libellous and suggest they contact a
good libel solicitor.

Why Reader’s Reports Work

For all reader’s reports, I will
then give a conclusion, summarising my recommendations and giving authors
suggestions on how to further develop their stories. Some may need to flesh out
the story to make it long enough for publishing. Others may need to work on the
building blocks of story to make the story more convincing. Some lucky authors
are more or less ready to go, with just a few suggestions from me to take them
over the finishing line.

For me, creating reader’s reports is very satisfying, as it gives me a chance to help other writers achieve their writing dreams. For the authors, my hope is that the reader’s report will guide them through the maze of writing a book and help them over the finish line. If they’re getting ready to report, my reader’s reports will give them access to an objective view that they can use to help them decide if they will publish. If you’d like to find out more about how a reader’s report can help you achieve your writing goals, check out the WriteWords writing consultancy services.

It’s here! The brand-spanking new
WriteWords Editorial website
is now up. It has a shiny, polished look, but most importantly, it has menus
that are easy to navigate for people browsing on phones. You’ll find out what
services I offer, and I’ve added a few new ones like writing consultancy and
transcription. You’ll also find out why availing of the WriteWords service is a
good idea.

This website is a WordPress
website, created by the loving hands and nimble tech brain of Samantha Clooney
from The Virtual Office, who
relishes a challenge. As I’m familiar with WordPress from this blog, Samantha
has give me almighty power to add content to the website, so you’ll see the
latest blog posts on that as well.

If you have a moment, I’d love you
to drop in and let me know what you think about the website. Is there anything
I could add or take away? I hope it will be useful to you and give you the
information you need.

A few days ago, I received an
email that made my day. Robert Thompson, who had attended one of my creative
writing workshops, wrote to tell me he had self-published a book. It’s always
delightful to see someone’s idea come to fruition, but this news was especially
sweet to hear because in an unexpected way, I had achieved an ambition of my
own.

Writing Workshops

For three years between 2014 and
2017, on and off, I gave various creative writing workshops at the National
Council for the Blind in Dublin. They were in fiction, journalism and memoir
and they were very successful and well attended, with the memoir workshops
striking a particular chord. Being partially sighted myself, these workshops
were very dear to my heart.

Robert Thompson came to one of
the memoir workshops, where he produced a piece of writing that was so
perfectly crafted that I could think of nothing further to add as feedback. It
was a funny, warm piece that delighted everyone who heard it. It was writing of
this quality that made me want to take the workshops further. I wanted
published work to come out of the workshops, Writing that would give
participants the chance to show the world that they are more than their
disability, writing that would help them give shape their experience and help
readers see the world as they saw it.

Barriers to Publishing Success

For a variety of reasons, that
didn’t happen. The funding available for such projects tended to be for group
collaborations led by an artist, in which the artist would create the work in
conjunction with a community group. But I feel that if the participants really
wanted to show the world what they were made of, they needed to be given a
chance to create their own work, to let their unique voices be heard. I also had
to recognise that what I wanted wasn’t necessarily what the participants
wanted. The workshops began to lose momentum and fizzled out. That’s the nature
of these things.

Robert’s Publishing Quest

Robert Thompson came to the workshops at around the time they started to fizzle out, and he booked a couple of workshops that didn’t happen due to lack of numbers. I felt sorry that he in particular wasn’t going to have the chance to be part of a bigger writing project with the participants. But Robert took matters into his own hands and finished a book called Insights from an Unsighted World, in which he shares his own stories of sight loss and raises awareness of the needs of visually impaired people in gentle ways.

Robert was kind enough to say that my workshop was the spark that led to the book. I’m just happy to know that the workshops did achieve the outcome I hoped for in the end, that published work came out of it. I’m delighted that Robert was able to share his story, and in the process, move beyond the confines of his disability. He has produced an elegant book written in the concise, lyrical, humorous style that I encountered in the workshop, and now the world will have a chance to experience it.

I hope you buy this book. I hope
you don’t buy it out of pity. And I hope you buy it even if you have no
connection to anyone with sight loss. If you enjoy stories that give you a glimpse
into other people’s worlds, or you want to get an insight into how people cope
with life’s hurdles, you’ll find it an interesting read. Even if you have no
interest in the subject matter, you will get a warm glow from knowing that you
are supporting two very worthwhile charities. Robert is selflessly donating the
proceeds of the book to Irish Guide Dogs and the National Council for the Blind.

If I’ve managed to entice you to
buy Robert’s book, you can order it at Irish Guide Dogs.

A couple of years
ago, I gave a series of one-day memoir writing workshops, which gave people a
chance to write about their lives. The workshops were a success, so I decided
to revive them.

I was delighted to
discover that interest in memoir writing was still as strong as ever, and the
workshop soon filled up. On a Sunday morning, ten women gathered in a
beautiful, sunny room to begin unlocking their memories and turning those
memories into stories.

This writing workshop
aimed to show the participants that their daily lives contained all the
material they needed for stories. It would also show them that they only needed
to record their lives with one small story at a time, event by event. This
would take away that sense of drowning in story that often paralyses people and
stops them from writing.

Building Stories

We began with the building blocks of story, which I’ve discussed in previous blog posts. After warm-ups, we did one exercise to cover each of the three building blocks: plot, character and setting. For plot, the participants recorded a small but significant injustice that happened to them when they were young. Everyone has a story like this – a time when they were promised a prize that wasn’t delivered, or when they were left out of a family occasion. Small incidents that sear themselves into your memory. Recording them makes for vivid stories.

Then we moved to
character, and the participants did a character sketch, a sort of portrait in
words of someone significant in their lives. They wrote CV type details like
their name, age and address, described their appearance, and gave more personal
details, like their hobbies, jobs, and family circumstances. The most important
part of the sketch was the character’s secret past, a detail about them that
was unusual or wasn’t known to the general public. This detail often forms the
basis for rich stories.

Finally, we discussed
setting, the time and the place where a story happens, and the characters wrote
about rooms in their houses that meant a lot to them. I asked them to write
about their bedrooms, as people often have a strong relationship with their
bedroom, but they could write about any room that they were attached to. They
wrote about what the room looked like, sounded like and smelled like, and most
importantly, how it made them feel.

Journey Through the
Senses

After lunch, it was time for a journey through the senses. With memories of good food still in their minds, the participants captured the taste of oranges, which can be a challenging fruit, and recorded a memory of a meal which was either horrible or delicious.

Oranges work all of a writer’s senses.

Then they told the life stories of unusual objects. I gave each of them an object from my collection of weird treasures, and they imagined where it came from, what adventures it had had and how it came to be here. This exercise was the hit of the day, producing vivid stories packed with event and emotion.

Finally, we travelled
through soundscapes, recording the sounds we loved and despised, and listening
to a piece of music which produced mixed reactions. The participants were asked
to pick five words that came to mind when they heard the music. I deliberately
pick pieces of music that aren’t easy on the ear, based on the fact that
uncomfortable sensations produce writing that is just as eloquent as that
produced by beautiful sensations.

If you feel you’d
like to record your own memories through story and you’d like to be included in
an upcoming memoir workshop, send me an email on derbhile@writewordseditorial.ie and I’ll add you to my newsletter mailing list.
00